Ballon d'Or

This article is about the European football award. For the FIFA award issued from 2010–2015, see FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Michel Platini, pictured with the 1985 Ballon d'Or, won the award three times in succession.

The Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation: ​[balɔ̃ dɔʁ]; "Golden Ball"), often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award, is an annual association football award presented by France Football. It was awarded from 1956 to 2009 and was revived in 2016. Conceived by sports writer Gabriel Hanot, the award honours the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists. Originally, only European players were in contention for the Ballon d'Or, but from 1995, all players at European clubs are eligible.[1][2]

Stanley Matthews of Blackpool was the inaugural winner of the Ballon d'Or.[3]Milan's George Weah, the only African recipient, became the first non-European to win the award in the year the rules of eligibility were changed.[2]Ronaldo of Internazionale became the first South American winner two years later.[2] Three players have won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff of Ajax and Barcelona, Michel Platini of Juventus and Marco van Basten of Milan. With seven awards each, Dutch and German players won the most Ballons d'Or. Italian clubs Juventus and Milan had the most winners respectively; six players won eight awards while playing for each club.[4]

In 2007, the Ballon d'Or changed in scope from an honour bestowed on Europe-based players by Europe-based journalists to one open to all players and voted on by journalists from around the world.[5] It was subsequently merged with a similar award, the FIFA World Player of the Year award, to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, which was awarded to the world's best male player between 2010 and 2015, when FIFA and France Football broke the merging agreement.[6] In 2011, UEFA created the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award to maintain the format of the original Ballon d'Or.[7]

Additional awards

A special Ballon d'Or, under the name Super Ballon d'Or, was awarded to Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1989, after he surpassed Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini in France Football's voting.[8] A decade later, France Football elected Pelé the Football Player of the Century after consulting their former Ballon d'Or recipients. Among the 34 previous winners, 30 cast their votes; Stanley Matthews, Omar Sívori and George Best abstained, and Lev Yashin had died. Each voter was allotted five votes worth up to five points; however, Di Stéfano only chose a first place, Platini a first and second place, and George Weah two players for fifth place. Pelé was named the greatest by 17 voters, receiving almost double the number of points earned by the runner-up, Diego Maradona.[9]

To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Ballon d'Or in 2016, France Football published a reevaluation of the awards presented before 1995, when only European players were eligible to win the award. 12 out of the 39 Ballons d'Or presented during this time period would have been awarded to South American players; in addition to Pelé and Diego Maradona, Garrincha, Mario Kempes, and Romário were retrospectively recognized as worthy winners. The original recipients, however, remain unchanged.[10] Maradona and Pelé received honorary Ballons d'Or for their services to football in 1996 and 2013, respectively.[11][12]